Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Ready to get addicted all over again?

Four years ago, gamers entered a game world like no other. It wasn't a world with set goals, fantastic flora or fauna, or over-the-top boss encounters. Instead, it was a world that acted as a twisted version of our own. It was a world filled with people with acid tongues who would react believably to gunshots that rang through late-night streets. It was a world filled with myriad fictional car models that would mostly obey the rules of the road. It was a sharp, dark, angular world that so believably portrayed a city that the included map was practically required reference so that the player could find the quickest path to the nearest Pay 'n' Spray or Ammu-Nation. The hero was far from virtuous -- he was a nameless mute who started off donning orange prison garb and who was introduced to the players after escaping a police convoy during a transport. It was a world meant to intimidate, yet it also managed to inspire.

Back in November 2001, Grand Theft Auto III marked an important turning point for the gaming industry. Though some claim it marked the moment the industry grew up, that isn't entirely accurate. It's more a game that people had always wanted, and one that finally got it right. Actions had consequences. Missions, though not always optional, certainly felt that way. Opportunities abounded. It was a game that had a set of flexible rules that let you create your own stories. In a way, as mature as the game may have been in terms of its content, it offered gamers a simple innocence that more family-friendly games lacked: It let their imaginations run wild.

This watershed game had its problems, though. A clunky targeting system made on-foot shoot-outs a pain -- often, your character would lock on to a cowering pedestrian instead of the policeman determined to take you out, Dirty Harry style. Cut-scenes were filled with characters that had what best can be described as mitten hands, with fingers seemingly fused together. And rarely could you drive far without seeing a hefty dose of graphical popup. But thanks to the sandbox Rockstar created, millions of players looked past these problems -- and now, the Grand Theft Auto series is making a return trip.

Liberty City Stories is an important game. Because it takes place in a city so steeped in nostalgia -- and one many gamers are intimately familiar with -- it has additional weight on its shoulders to do justice to GTA3 while also making the expected improvements to the blockbuster series. A recap of what we know: LCS takes place in the late '90s, roughly three years before the events of GTA3, with the appropriate tweaks: People are dressed differently to reflect the changing styles; cars handle differently, seeing as they are earlier models; and some buildings are either nonexistent or are being built, while others have different signage (GTA3's Luigi's Sex Club was apparently called Paulie's Revue Bar a few years prior). Motorcycles, which weren't in GTA3 but were popular in Vice City and San Andreas, have been added to the vehicle roster. The story focuses on the mob side of Liberty City, something that was only seen from the outside in GTA3. Players will take control of Toni Cipriani, who in GTA3 was one of headman Don Leone's capodecinas, but who in LCS is still working his way up the ladder. The Michael Madsen-voiced (in GTA3 -- LCS voice unconfirmed) character is a mama's boy, although he's probably closer in attitude to Vice City's Tommy Vercetti, who would bark back before sheepishly taking orders, than he is to GTA3's mute no-name (sometimes referred to as Claude).

[Toni Cipriani art from Grand Theft Auto III]

The game won't play differently than previous PS2 entries in the series, barring minor control changes. Expect to get missions from a contact, with the majority being vehicle-based excursions through Liberty City's three districts, Portland, Staunton Island, and Shoreside Vale. GTA3's haphazard targeting system has been improved to something closer to San Andreas' standards, so on-foot missions should be more bearable, which is key on the PSP's small screen.

Logic would dictate some other likely possibilities: We expect you'll be able to enter more of Liberty City's buildings, a rare occurrence our first time through town. Also, though story details are under wraps, it's probably safe to assume that Toni will be double-crossed at some point (Catalina, Lance Vance, or Big Smoke, anyone?), and the fact that Toni lives with his mother absolutely begs for a hostage situation. An important landmark will likely be St. Mark's Bistro (also known as Marco's Bistro) -- those who played through the series should realize its significance. In GTA3, it was the focal point for one of the most memorable and first "Holy crap!" missions in the game, in which you were charged with stealing Leone rival Lips Forelli's car as he ate at the bistro, having it fitted with a bomb, and then returning it to its parking spot before Lips finished eating and the fireworks started. In San Andreas, CJ flew across the country to clean out the same bistro for Salvatore Leone in a one-shot Liberty City mission. Chances are, a key showdown will take place at this unassuming restaurant.

[Marco's Bistro screen from Grand Theft Auto III]

The unknowns are still many, though. How will the controls work out with two less shoulder buttons? (It wasn't a joy on Xbox.) What of the rumored multiplayer functionality? Will players be able to pilot helicopters and planes in addition to popping wheelies on motorcycles? Which characters will make cameos? Rockstar swears this is a full-fledged GTA game -- likely feeling strikingly similar to the PS2 games -- and if that's the case, LCS will be a nice holdover until the series hits the next generation of consoles.

So the nostalgia is there, the improvements are there, and PSP's need for a killer app is there. In a few months, we'll find out how sweetly this story turns out.

Load Times?
If there was one complaint about Rockstar's first PSP project, Midnight Club 3, it's that there were long load times between races. So how does the company plan to avoid that pitfall for Liberty City Stories? "We changed the way the city is structured," Rockstar's Gordon Hall told Official PlayStation Magazine. "Seek time is a killer on PSP, not the actual loading, so we have adapted Liberty City's world structure to enable us to burst in the data when we need it. However, someone playing the game will be unaware of these changes, as they are purely related to the way data is organized and accessed on the disc."